Mary "Betty" Sadler

Mary “Betty” Sadler

10/24/1937 - 4/2/2025

Betty Sadler was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi, on October 24, 1937, to Hilda (née Foxworth) and Ray Shelby Miller. She was named Mary Elizabeth for her maternal grandmother but called “Betty” all her life. The family relocated to Jackson, Mississippi, and Betty attended the city’s public schools and then went to Millsaps College. She was the editor of both her high school and college newspapers, which pretty much signaled her path ahead. She graduated from Millsaps with a B.A. in English in 1958. That fall she started graduate studies in Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, graduating with a M.S. in Journalism in 1960.

One day while catching a train home, she visited with a doctor and his wife from Jackson. They told her the Mississippi State Medical Association was starting a monthly journal and maybe she would be interested in a position. She got the job and started work as the editorial assistant on the journal a few months later.

She met her future husband, Louis Ray Sadler, a reporter for the Jackson Daily News, when he covered the annual medical convention.

They were married June 24, 1961. She was 23, somewhat older than the average bride of the day. Her mother thought maybe a tailored suit would be more appropriate than a wedding dress. Her mother lost that discussion.

A daughter, Lesley Ann, was born December 12, 1963, and Betty changed her work schedule to half time. One day the phone rang, it was a classmate from Northwestern now working for The National Observer, a weekly, published by Dow Jones & Company. The Civil Rights movement was gaining momentum in Mississippi and the paper needed a local stringer. They were willing to give Betty a chance even though she didn’t have professional newspaper experience because, due to the recommendation of the classmate, they knew she would be a straight shooter. For the next two years Betty and Ray covered the unfolding events for the paper.

In the late summer of 1965, the family moved to Columbia, SC for Ray to work on a Ph.D. in History at the University of South Carolina.

A college friend recommended Betty to the executive editor of the Columbia newspapers. As soon as Betty enrolled Lesley in daycare, she went to work in the women’s news section. At that time most women writers wanted to be news writers, but the features in the women’s news section suited Betty because she could work shorter hours and a regular schedule. One lunch hour she was alone in the office and a call came in saying that President Lyndon Johnson’s sister was visiting in town and would be willing to be interviewed. Betty received the assignment because she took the call. The interview made The Huntley-Brinkley Report that evening because this sister had never before agreed to an interview, and she described Lyndon as “always very bossy.”

On July 7, 1969, a second child, William Sadler, was born just before the family moved to Las Cruces, NM. Ray joined the history department at New Mexico State University and for a while Betty was a stay-at-home mom. Then one day Ray came home and said he had found a job for her. He had met the head of the publications section at NMSU, and she was looking for part-time help. Betty went to work on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8am until 12pm, a great schedule that didn’t last. By 1979 her boss had retired, and she became the head of the section. She worked for NMSU until she retired in 2001.

Betty was all her life a nervous nellie, just sure the sky was going to fall any minute. At her retirement party, one of her colleagues summed her up by noting, “She taught us how to worry”—a perfect epitaph.

Betty was predeceased by her parents, her husband, and her brother, Ray Shelby Miller, Jr. She is survived by a daughter, Lesley Ann, and son, Will, as well as two grandchildren Zachary Soules and Jocelyn Soules.

A memorial service honoring the life of Betty Sadler will be held at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum on April 17th, 2025, at 1pm in the Ventana’s Ballroom. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Mesilla Valley Hospice at 299, E. Montana Ave, Las Cruces, NM 88005.

Arrangements by Getz Funeral Home, 1440 Bowman Ave. Las Cruces, NM 88001 Please Visit www.getzcares.com to sign the local online guest book.